I'm still fairly new to this forum and English is not my first language. Apologies in advance should this thread turn out to be inappropriate in any way.

 

So...I'm having problems doing timing readings, and it has been bugging me for a while. I know that certain readers do timing predictions with petit lenormand, either by a draw of five or a full GT (namely a timing board). I believe that the host behind the Cafe Lenormand website has a page introducing her method of a timing line of 5, and Chanah in her blog mentioned doing a full board GT with timing associations distributed to every card (should rider fall into the house of clover, for example, that would be news arriving in 2-4 days). I remember Andy Boroveshengra also mentioned somewhere that he also used a line of 5 for timing, and that apart from timing associations for each of the cards, he also labelled them with Fast/Steady/Slow. I believe in his book, Lenormand 36 Cards, he explained that such associations derives from the core value of the cards (the Lily represents a deeper sense of euphoria and satisfaction, so the Lily is Slow while the Clover is Fast). 

 

I once followed Rana George's The Essential Lenormand combined with Cafe Lenormand's instructions, and I did timing readings with the method on the website. However, as I turn to focus more on judging cards by their distance by studying Andy's book, that method turned out to be incompatible for my changed practice.  I do utilize the method outlined in Andy's book which uses playing card insets faced by the significator left in the pack during a reading, but still I wonder if anyone here can share their insights on how to do a timing reading alone (asking directly when something is probably going to happen rather than doing a forecast then pinning down when the events in that prediction would transpire).

To clarify my question, I have dissected my inquiry as the following:

 

1. What spread/layout to use when doing such a timing question?
TBH I am particularly fascinated by the idea of a timing line of 5. However, I understand that there must be others who do things differently. 

2. How do I know the timing associations of every card?
This is the question that bothers me the most.
From all the sources I've gathered, timing values of certain cards seem to have themselves agreed upon, including the Cavalier/Rider (1-2 days or within a week at most), the Clover (2-4 days or 3-4 days), etc. Also, certain cards can represent the seasons and different "parts" of a day: the Flowers/Sun/Scythe/Lily can represent the 4 seasons, and the House/Sun/Park/Moon/Stars can represent time frames from morning to night. Certain combinations can give clues to timing, I remember reading Andy writing that Ring+Sun can represent birthday (a cycle of solar movement, which I believe can still be found in one of his archived articles). 
Yet, this still leaves out a lot of cards. How exactly do I see the timing value within them? Do I use their numbers, their playing card insets, or some other features within their design? 

 

3. How do I put the timing associations and the timing spread together into action?
Or: Is there anything particular to be noted when reading such a timing spread?

 

I know that a reader can include time frames when phrasing the question, and that a reader can also answer a timing question by doing a series of yes/no inquiries. But, still, I'm particularly interested in how a reader can answer a timing question directly with lenormand cards.

I hope this long thread does not bore you all. Many thanks in advance and bright blessings to you all.
 

 

On 6/4/2021 at 9:02 PM, Sadewa said:

1. What spread/layout to use when doing such a timing question?
TBH I am particularly fascinated by the idea of a timing line of 5. However, I understand that there must be others who do things differently. 

Since you already mentioned Chanah's Timing Board, you've got a least one alternate method already. But a lot of people work very hard collecting spreads, associations, etc. and that's really not helpful at all. The trick is to be able to pull the correct timing off of the cards, which leads us to:

 

On 6/4/2021 at 9:02 PM, Sadewa said:

2. How do I know the timing associations of every card?
This is the question that bothers me the most.
From all the sources I've gathered, timing values of certain cards seem to have themselves agreed upon, including the Cavalier/Rider (1-2 days or within a week at most), the Clover (2-4 days or 3-4 days), etc. Also, certain cards can represent the seasons and different "parts" of a day: the Flowers/Sun/Scythe/Lily can represent the 4 seasons, and the House/Sun/Park/Moon/Stars can represent time frames from morning to night. Certain combinations can give clues to timing, I remember reading Andy writing that Ring+Sun can represent birthday (a cycle of solar movement, which I believe can still be found in one of his archived articles). 
Yet, this still leaves out a lot of cards. How exactly do I see the timing value within them? Do I use their numbers, their playing card insets, or some other features within their design? 

 

Iris Treppner gave a timing association for every card, and these are the ones Chanah suggested in her Timing Board post. Have you downloaded the Treppner course yet? 

But no list of associations is accurate in every circumstance. The reason is context. If, for example, a package has been shipped to you, you want to know when it will arrive and you get the Ship (3 years), you know that your package won't arrive three years from now. Packages come much sooner, or else they don't come at all and you should try to get a refund. The key to timing your package is that the Ship is slow. So your package might take a month or so - longer than usual, but not three years! Andy's Fast/Steady/Slow that you mentioned is much more effective than attributions like "now", "August", "7 years". etc. Just put the card in context. If you want to know when a tree you planted will bear fruit, you know you're thinking in terms of years, but when a pregnant woman will give birth is a matter of months, weeks, days or hours, depending on how far along she is.

 

On 6/4/2021 at 9:02 PM, Sadewa said:

3. How do I put the timing associations and the timing spread together into action?
Or: Is there anything particular to be noted when reading such a timing spread?

 

Just go along with the methodology for the chosen spread. If you're looking for a card in a certain house, time that card. If you're looking for a preponderance of a certain suit, go with the season indicated by that suit. It just depends what you're doing.

Thank you @katrinka! That's really helpful!
 

3 hours ago, katrinka said:

But a lot of people work very hard collecting spreads, associations, etc. and that's really not helpful at all.

I heartily agree, and I don't mean to. But, still, trying to figure things out with online searching inevitably makes one end up with various stuff... My intention has always been to find a reliable source and to stick to it, though. 

 

3 hours ago, katrinka said:

Iris Treppner gave a timing association for every card, and these are the ones Chanah suggested in her Timing Board post. Have you downloaded the Treppner course yet? 

Yes! I have downloaded the Treppner course. Great resource indeed!
 

 

3 hours ago, katrinka said:

But no list of associations is accurate in every circumstance. The reason is context. If, for example, a package has been shipped to you, you want to know when it will arrive and you get the Ship (3 years), you know that your package won't arrive three years from now. Packages come much sooner, or else they don't come at all and you should try to get a refund. The key to timing your package is that the Ship is slow. So your package might take a month or so - longer than usual, but not three years!

This really makes things a lot clearer... Thank you...
I suppose that you are saying that the when doing timing, the cards are actually showing whether the event would happen faster/slower than expected/usual? Actually I have never thought about it that way, and was indeed confused. Now I see that what I lack is putting those cards into a timing context.
 

 

3 hours ago, katrinka said:

Andy's Fast/Steady/Slow that you mentioned is much more effective than attributions like "now", "August", "7 years". etc. Just put the card in context. If you want to know when a tree you planted will bear fruit, you know you're thinking in terms of years, but when a pregnant woman will give birth is a matter of months, weeks, days or hours, depending on how far along she is.

Indeed that must bee more effective. But if you don't mind me bugging you with further questions... I suppose that using slow/steady/fast can give a rough time frame, but then do I "refine" this judgment with individual card associations? If so, then how do I know what time frame does the Book or the Ring indicate? There are occasions like "the package scenario" where I can easily get the "one month or so" conclusion. But I suppose there would also be cases where I get a "one or two months" and need to "narrow it down". 
 

 

3 hours ago, katrinka said:

Just go along with the methodology for the chosen spread. If you're looking for a card in a certain house, time that card. If you're looking for a preponderance of a certain suit, go with the season indicated by that suit. It just depends what you're doing

Again I thank you for your sound advice!  Your reply has indeed cleared up a lot of my confusions.

4 minutes ago, Sadewa said:

If so, then how do I know what time frame does the Book or the Ring indicate?

This may not be clear enough. My apologies. I understand that you have already pointed out existing lists of associations.

What I actually want to ask is:  Using the Slow/Steady/Fast model there may be discrepancies between associations and reality, like the "Ship for 3 years" scenario that you pointed out. In these cases, how do I know what time frame these cards represent when the given associations obviously don't apply? Do I look for other clues, or do I just treat them as a Slow/Steady/Fast component without a certain time frame?
 

Edited June 7, 20215 yr by Sadewa

I would just treat them as Slow/Steady/Fast, since you do that according to the card essence. You can't go wrong with essence. 😉
But even then, don't make guarantees to your sitter where timing is concerned. Even Cicely Kent said "‘In reading the cards, time definitely indicated is the exception rather than the rule." You can get a timeframe, but it's very difficult to pin time down precisely.

 

Probably the easiest and most accurate method for timing events is to simply include it in the question: "Will I hear from X this week?" "Will my bonus be included with my next paycheck?" etc.

4 hours ago, katrinka said:

I would just treat them as Slow/Steady/Fast, since you do that according to the card essence. You can't go wrong with essence. 😉
But even then, don't make guarantees to your sitter where timing is concerned. Even Cicely Kent said "‘In reading the cards, time definitely indicated is the exception rather than the rule." You can get a timeframe, but it's very difficult to pin time down precisely.

 

Probably the easiest and most accurate method for timing events is to simply include it in the question: "Will I hear from X this week?" "Will my bonus be included with my next paycheck?" etc.

Thank you again for your kind reply. I really have learned a lot from this.

I have been including timing within the question. I guess I will try my hand at getting timeframes from the cards based on their essence applied to timing contexts from now on. Experiment and see what I can get.😀